Some top D-I swimmers allowed to skip sectional

If anyone was checking last Saturday's Division I sectional swimming and diving tournament results from the host site at Fremont Ross and saw no names listed as competing from perennial state power St. Francis de Sales, there was a good reason.

This season the northwest district adopted a qualifying procedure that enabled any Division I swimmers who had regular-season times (or points for divers) that ranked among the top 24 in the district to bypass sectional meets and go directly to districts.

St. Francis, the D-I state runner-up the last two seasons, managed to qualify all of its swimmers and divers in each event in that top 24, according to Knights coach Keith Kennedy.

Thus, no Knights needed to compete at the sectional event.

They, along with all other pre-qualifiers and sectional qualifiers, began competing Wednesday at Bowling Green State University's Cooper Pool in attempt to qualify for state competition next week.

All boys and girls teams from Divisions I and II will vie for state berths through Saturday.

Individuals and relay teams who enter the district meet with the No. 1 times or points total within the district in their given events are:

Division I boys: St. Francis -- Mike Minor (one-meter diving), D.J. MacDonald (200-yard individual medley, 100 breaststroke), Dan DiSalle (50 and 100 freestyle), Matt Zimmerman (200 and 500 freestyle), and the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay, and 400 freestyle relay teams; Findlay -- Dietrich Hinesman (100 butterfly) and Kyle Hopkins (100 backstroke).

Division I girls: Notre Dame -- Rachael Dzierzak (200 IM); St. Ursula -- Emmy Sehmann (200 freestyle), Mikayla Murphy (500 freestyle), Zhada Fields (100 backstroke), and the 400 freestyle relay team; Perrysburg -- Karissa Gordon (100 butterfly); Fremont Ross -- Laura Duncan (100 breaststroke), and the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams.

Division II boys: Napoleon--Tim Peltier (one-meter diving).

Division II girls: Wauseon -- Kendall Weber (one-meter diving); Napoleon -- Ericka Vocke (200 freestyle); Port Clinton -- MacKenzie Stewart (200 IM) and the 400 freestyle relay team; Lake -- Adriana Cannon (100 butterfly).

WRESTLING

Sectionals begin

Berths for the district wrestling tournament will be on the line Saturday around northwest Ohio as sectional competitions are staged at various sites.

The Division I meet at Clay features 10 teams, including the host Eagles, who just romped to the first Three Rivers Athletic Conference team title last Saturday at Central Catholic.

The other D-I sectional will be at Marion Harding, and that field includes Northern Lakes League champion Perrysburg.

Each meet sends the top four placers as qualifiers to the D-I district tournament Feb. 24-25 at Ashland University.

In Division II, TRAC runner-up Central Catholic and three-time defending Northwest Ohio Athletic League champion Wauseon will each be part of a 13-team sectional field at Lima Shawnee.

The other D-II sectional is at Shelby High School, which features a 13-team field. Clyde, Sandusky Perkins, Oak Harbor, Eastwood, and Bellevue should all be in contention near the top.

The top four placers at Shawnee and Shelby will earn berths for the Feb. 24-25 district meet at the Marion County Fairgrounds.

Elmwood, Archbold, and Carey are three of the host sites for sectional tournaments in Division III. Northern Buckeye Conference champion Elmwood will be competing on its home mats, NWOAL runner-up Archbold will enjoy the same home mat edge, as will Carey.

The top four placers in each weight class will advance to district competition Feb. 24-25 at Owens Community College.

HOCKEY

District at Tam-O-Shanter

The district hockey tournament begins Thursday night at Sylvania Tam-O-Shanter, which will host all 13 games leading up to sending a champion to the state semifinals March 10-11 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

Starting things off for the 14 teams from the Northwest Hockey Conference's Red, White, and Blue divisions will be a pair of first-round games Thursday, with rivals Maumee and Perrysburg facing off at 6 p.m., followed by an 8 p.m. matchup between Findlay and Fremont Ross.

Friday's first-round games pit Bowling Green against Springfield at 7 p.m. and defending state champion St. Francis against Ottawa Hills at 9 p.m.

The first-round stage concludes Saturday when Southview meets Whitmer at 6 p.m., and Anthony Wayne squares off against Clay at 8 p.m.

Top-seeded Northview -- which went 8-0-0 in the NHC (upper level) Red Division and defeated St. John's 5-2 to capture the Red playoff championship last Sunday -- drew a first-round bye and will open with a quarterfinal matchup against the Maumee-Perrysburg winner Monday at 8 p.m.

That game follows the 6 p.m. contest between second-seeded St. John's, which also drew a bye, and the Southview-Whitmer winner.

Other quarterfinals on Tuesday feature the Findlay-Fremont Ross winner taking on the Bowling Green-Springfield winner at 6 p.m., and the St. Francis-Ottawa Hills winner facing the Anthony Wayne-Clay winner at 8 p.m.

The district semifinals are set for Feb. 24 and 25, each at 7 p.m. The district championship is scheduled for March 3 at 7 p.m.

NHC playoff champions

In addition to Northview's 5-2 win over St. John's in the Red Division final, Maumee defeated Anthony Wayne 6-5 to win the mid-level White Division playoff championship on Sunday.

Springfield beat Lake 7-3 in the lower-level Blue Division final on Saturday.

BASKETBALL

Date changed for CL final

The date of the City League boys basketball championship game has been moved from the originally scheduled Feb. 24 to Feb. 23 at the Waite Field House.

League commissioner Ed Scrutchins said that scheduling conflicts with game officials led to the change, which will only impact the varsity final of what was originally intended to be a championship triple-header.

The varsity title game will be played at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at Waite, while the freshman and junior varsity finals will remain on Feb. 24 at Waite.

The CL boys playoffs begin with first-round games Friday at Bowsher.

Start (10-6, 5-5 CL) faces Woodward (3-13. 1-9) at 6 p.m., and host Bowsher (12-5, 7-3) takes on Waite (2-15, 1-9) at 8 p.m.

Tuesday's semifinals at Start feature No. 2 seed Scott (10-7, 7-3) against the Bowsher-Waite winner at 6 p.m. and top-seeded Rogers (13-4, 9-1) playing the Start-Woodward winner at 8 p.m.

Jordan Myles